ASRock 775Dual-VSTA for Conroe (Core2) with both AGP/PCI-E and DDR1/DDR2 support

Can anyone point me in the right direction for what settings to apply for this mobo for overclocking using an E4300 C2D, DDR400 PNY memory and an AGP gfx card (X1950 Pro)?

Im unsure about things like memory timings, FSB settings and AGP Apeture size etc etc...

Thanks

StevieP
 
I had a similar problem with the memory speed dropping - like you I wanted to keep it close to 200. Not sure why, I've not really bothered playing with it since to be honest. It seems fast enough anyway :)
I'll let you know if I figure it out.
 
I've upped the FSB to 290 (wouldnt post at 300) and left the memory at 166MHz in the bios (CPUZ says its running at 181MHz) and everything seems fine!
I did try changing the RAM frequency back to 200 but because of the FSB increase, it was working at 217MHz, which I assume will case problems??

So far, happy chappy!!! :D

StevieP
 
X1950 Artifacts and Bios Settings ?

Hi guys, my first post on the forum and wonder can you help please ?

I bought one of these boards ( quad ) last week with the E6600.
I then bought 2gb of DDR2 PC 6400 ( Geil MY 064 GL )
I allready had the Sapphire X1950 512 AGP Pro.
The PSU is an Akasa 460 watt ( PaxPower AK - P460 FG BK )
I put it all together and was well pleased when it fired up.
I have flashed the Bios to the latest revision.
I have selected the AGP rather than PCI card in the Bios but as yet not altered anything else.

What else do I need to change in the Bios to get this system configured correctly ?

Twice now, I've had the computer freeze with artifacts on the screen after it's been run for a few hours.

Is this maybe that I haven't configured correctly, or is it indeed the PSU not up to the job ?

The X1950 is new, and only been used on this motherboard.

Any help or advice would be most welcome, thank you guys.

[SSR] Wessy
 
I bought one of these boards a few days ago, but have yet to get it setup as I have to wait until the end of the month before i can get a CPU. Anyhow, my advice is to check the RAM timings in the bios, and make sure the BIOS isn't auto-detecting the RAM, and giving incorrect settings. the PSU should be fine, because i have the x1950 pro agp running on my 400W PSU just fine.
 
Just in case you guys would liek to know.
I had bought an 8800 GTS and tried it on the asrock 4core, and it jkept crashing in windows when i loaded the drivers.

Today I got my new DS3P motherboard. and with the same windows install it works perfectly.

So in my experience the 8800GTS doesn't work with the 4core.


had the same trouble in xp but works fine in vista its weird?????
 
any suggestions on overclocking?

Number of processors 1
Number of cores 2 per processor
Number of threads 2 (max 2) per processor
Name Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Code Name Conroe
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
Package Socket 775 LGA
Family/Model/Stepping 6.F.6
Extended Family/Model 6.F
Core Stepping B2
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 2611.9 MHz
Multiplier x Bus speed 9.0 x 290.2 MHz
Rated Bus speed 1160.8 MHz
Stock frequency 2400 MHz
Instruction sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size

Chipset & Memory

Northbridge VIA PT880 Pro rev. 00
Southbridge VIA VT8237A rev. 00
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x4
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR
Memory Size 2048 MBytes
Memory Frequency 181.4 MHz (8:5)
DRAM Interleave 4-way
CAS# Latency (tCL) 2.5 clocks
RAS# to CAS# (tRDC) 3 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 2 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 5 clocks
Command Rate 2T

System

System Manufacturer To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Name To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System S/N To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Mainboard Vendor
Mainboard Model 4CoreDual-VSTA
BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Version P1.30
BIOS Date 12/11/2006

Memory SPD

Module 1 DDR, PC3200 (200 MHz), 1024 MBytes, Corsair
Module 2 DDR, PC3200 (200 MHz), 1024 MBytes, Corsair

Software

Windows Version Microsoft Windows Vista (6.0) Home Premium Edition (Build 6000)
DirectX Version 10.0
 
Hi Munky1080, thanks for the reply about memory settings.
I did change it from AUTO to 333MHZ DDRII667 but to no avail.
After a few hours the artifacts appeared and the system froze.
A quick reset sorted that, but that's hardly a cure !
This memory setting is something of a " black art " as far as I'm concerned,
so if someone could talk me through it then I would be very pleased ?
Here's what I've changed so far in the BIOS :

DRAM Frequency from AUTO to 333MHZ DDRII667
Enabled Flexibility Option
Changed the AGP aperture to 128mb
Selected Primary Graphics Adapter to AGP

That's all I've done, I quess that's not enough ?

Here's what it reports through CPUZ :

Memory Type DDR
Channels#Dual
DRAM Interleave 4-way
Memory Size 2048 MBytes

Memory Frequency 192.2 MHz
FSB : DRAM 4:3
CAS# Latency 3.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# 3 clocks
RAS# Precharge 3 clocks
Cycle Time 9 clocks
Command Rate 2T

Just to recap, here are my system details :

DDR2 PC 6400 ( Geil MY 064 GL ) 2gb
Sapphire X1950 512 AGP Pro
Akasa 460 watt ( PaxPower AK - P460 FG BK )
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Asrock 775 Quad VSTA Motherboard

I look forward to any replies, thanks guys.

[SSR]Wessy
 
Turn off the memory flexibility option as all that does is cause the memory to be run at 2/3 the set speed.

Run memtest on your memory sticks, download the bootable version of it and write it to a CD then boot from the CD and it'll run on it's own. Let it go through 2 loops and see if you get any errors. If not then you can rule out the memory.

My board occasionally locks up on me too so it could just be that.
 
Darg said:
Turn off the memory flexibility option as all that does is cause the memory to be run at 2/3 the set speed..
Click to expand...

Mine is running at 290FSB and the memory sent to 166MHz but the memory seems to have "auto-clocked" itself down so that its running at 181MHz?!?

Does this mean I can disable this "memory felxibility" (if indeed it is on by default) and clock my DDR RAM closer to its proper speed of 200MHz???

It was odd that at 230FSB, my memory was running at 191MHz and then when I went to 240FSB, the memory (still set to 166 in the bios) suddenly dropped to running at 150MHz!?!?

StevieP
 
That's what happened to me too - I was very confused, as by my maths I'd set the fsb just right for the memory to be running at 200, given the divider.

At first I thought it was my sums that were wrong :)
 
You should never have the memory flexibility option enabled as it just cripples your RAM. The motherboard uses the best divider to get the memory speed as close as possible to what you set it, i.e. 166mhz. You should be able to set it to 166 and get it up near 200 with an overclock on the FSB though. Just make sure you dont push the ram too far.
 
Darg, thanks for the reply, very much appreciate your time.
I downloaded Memtest-86 v3.3 and made a bootable floppy.
I've just run it for an hour prior to this message and all seems fine.
I need to run it longer I know, probably over night.
When I said the machine freezes I may have misled you, it did once.
Last night I was able to quit the prog I was running and get back to the desktop.
The was evidence of artifacts on the desktop too.
Thanks again for you help, I'll keep you posted.

[SSR]Wessy
 
What graphics card do you use and can you record the temperatures it reaches during usage?

ATiTool can record temperature to a log file.

It sounds more like a graphics issue then a RAM issue. RAM wouldn't usually create artefacts. And it seems your RAM is running okay in memtest. Dodgy ram symptoms are usually stuttering while opening/closing programs or large documents or regular computer shutdowns during these memory access times.

Record both your CPU and GPU temperatures while playing games or doing whatever usually causes these artefacts then post them on here.

CPU should be 50-60 Max, GPU should be 60-70 max. Any higher on either could indicate a potential problem.
 
Darg said:
You should never have the memory flexibility option enabled as it just cripples your RAM. The motherboard uses the best divider to get the memory speed as close as possible to what you set it, i.e. 166mhz. You should be able to set it to 166 and get it up near 200 with an overclock on the FSB though. Just make sure you dont push the ram too far.
Click to expand...

So am I better setting it with the flexibility option off and possibly having to use the 133 setting to make sure its under 200MHz or leaving it as is at 290FSB and the memory operating at 181MHz??
 
Try it with flexibility turned off and set to DDR200. The mobo should set it to around 210~. Set RAM voltage to high and it should deal with that fine. Even my cheapo generic dell Ram could deal with 217 that it reached on 300FSB.
 
I can't seem to oc my 4core dual vista past 280Mhz, using E6400, OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 and gainward agp bliss7800+ gs. I thought i would be able to get a better overclock than that.
 
Althulas said:
I can't seem to oc my 4core dual vista past 280Mhz, using E6400, OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 and gainward agp bliss7800+ gs. I thought i would be able to get a better overclock than that.
Click to expand...

Why? This thread is full of posts that it clocks better with DDR RAM and that it doesn't clock much past 300 usually, 280-290 with DDR2 RAM.

E4300's seem to to clock reasonably well on this board though.
 
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